Blueprint for Gus?
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PITTSBURGH — Last winter, removed from the worst season in his head coaching career, frustrated by his offense’s performance and steaming over his players’ attitudes, Pat Narduzzi addressed the problems in his typical manner: painfully direct and brutally honest.
Narduzzi fired nearly his entire offensive coaching staff, completely altered the distribution of NIL cash to his team, and, lastly, opened the exit door for a few players who were seeking more money when they had not necessarily earned it.
“I said, ‘S***, I have to clean house,’” Narduzzi said from his office Tuesday.
Eleven months after those house-cleaning decisions, the Pitt Panthers are in the midst of one of college football’s greatest turnarounds — from 3-9 last season to 7-0 this season.
They are off to the best start in the program in more than 40 years, have one of the nation’s highest-scoring offenses and have flashed their invincibility with a pair of double-digit, fourth-quarter comebacks. They are using a new-fangled offense brought from the FCS level, are playing a new quarterback they got from Alabama and have a rebuilt defense thriving despite the departure of a handful of starters.
But perhaps most interesting of all, the school’s NIL collective, in conjunction with Narduzzi, made the offseason decision to overhaul the distribution structure on the team — from paying each player in a tiered system to paying select players who earn it.
“We won three games and had a structure where everyone was getting paid and that didn’t work for us. So, we changed it,” said Chris Bickell, a tech entrepreneur and Pitt booster who not only founded the school’s collective, Alliance 412, but donated $20 million of his own money to the football program in 2021.
“You have to be hungry,” Bickell continued. “If you want sponsorships and want to be paid like a professional, you have to earn it. This team is hungry.”
sports.yahoo.com
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PITTSBURGH — Last winter, removed from the worst season in his head coaching career, frustrated by his offense’s performance and steaming over his players’ attitudes, Pat Narduzzi addressed the problems in his typical manner: painfully direct and brutally honest.
Narduzzi fired nearly his entire offensive coaching staff, completely altered the distribution of NIL cash to his team, and, lastly, opened the exit door for a few players who were seeking more money when they had not necessarily earned it.
“I said, ‘S***, I have to clean house,’” Narduzzi said from his office Tuesday.
Eleven months after those house-cleaning decisions, the Pitt Panthers are in the midst of one of college football’s greatest turnarounds — from 3-9 last season to 7-0 this season.
They are off to the best start in the program in more than 40 years, have one of the nation’s highest-scoring offenses and have flashed their invincibility with a pair of double-digit, fourth-quarter comebacks. They are using a new-fangled offense brought from the FCS level, are playing a new quarterback they got from Alabama and have a rebuilt defense thriving despite the departure of a handful of starters.
But perhaps most interesting of all, the school’s NIL collective, in conjunction with Narduzzi, made the offseason decision to overhaul the distribution structure on the team — from paying each player in a tiered system to paying select players who earn it.
“We won three games and had a structure where everyone was getting paid and that didn’t work for us. So, we changed it,” said Chris Bickell, a tech entrepreneur and Pitt booster who not only founded the school’s collective, Alliance 412, but donated $20 million of his own money to the football program in 2021.
“You have to be hungry,” Bickell continued. “If you want sponsorships and want to be paid like a professional, you have to earn it. This team is hungry.”
How'd Pat Narduzzi turn around Pitt? NIL cuts, tough conversations and an offensive overhaul. 'S***, I have to clean house'
Pitt is off to the best start in the program in more than 40 years and has one of the nation’s highest-scoring offenses. So what's changed since last year's 3-9 team? Pretty much everything.
sports.yahoo.com
